INDUSTRY NEWS

Asia

Cabot to boost Asian capacity

Responding once again to industry demand, Cabot's microelectronics materials division plans to open a new plant in Geino, Japan, that will enable the company to boost slurry production by 150%. The U.S.-based supplier expects to finish construction at the Asia-Pacific headquarters site by January 2000. The completion comes one year after the opening of a 13,200-sq-ft facility in the Oaza-Kitakoyama Industrial Park. The company also will increase its workforce in Geino by 200%. Last year the Cabot business unit built a new corporate headquarters in Aurora, IL, increasing R&D capacity for its line of CMP slurries by 60%. The vendor also added a slurry production line at a plant in Wales, doubling European capacity.

Extraction signs filter deal

Hakuto, an established distributor and manufacturer in Japan, has signed an agreement giving it the exclusive rights to sell filtration systems made by Extraction Systems in Japan. The products are Extraction's VaporSorb II filtration systems, which use polymeric catalyst­based filters designed to increase the uptime of lithography tools, the Massachusetts-based company says. The systems can serve as direct replacements for both traditional track and stepper/scanner charcoal and ion exchange­based systems. The partners hope to tap into a Japanese market with an estimated annual value of $25 million. Hakuto distributes a range of semiconductor production gear for more than 100 firms. It also makes specialty chemicals for use in FPD and other high-tech manufacturing.

Pact may pep up DRAM biz

Hyundai Electronics and GaSonics International claim their new joint development pact will provide invaluable information for manufacturing DRAMs with geometries 0.13 µm. The joint agreement calls for San Jose­based GaSonics to install a PEP Iridia DL system at Hyundai's memory R&D division in Ichon, South Korea. The single-chamber tool cleans advanced high- aspect-ratio contact and metal gate structures required for 256-Mb and 1-Gb DRAMs, according to GaSonics. Manufacturing these advanced memory devices demands new ash and cleaning capabilities, Hyundai points out. In addition, semiconductor manufacturers are looking for dry postetch methods to remove photoresist residue as copper becomes further integrated into the chipmaking process.

Asyst is bigger in Japan

Asyst Technologies has signed a partnership pact with MECS of Nagoya, Japan, that will greatly expand Asyst's presence in that country. As part of the agreement, the Fremont­based manufacturer of wafer isolation tools will have a minority stake in MECS. Asyst has the option of acquiring a majority interest in MECS if the Japanese company hits certain business targets, an outcome expected to occur no later than March 2000. MECS makes robotic systems for manufacturing microchips and flat-panel displays. The company reported revenues of approximately $43 million for the year ended March 1999.

Baker finds local manufacturer

J.T. Baker has contracted a Seoul-based firm to manufacture the Baker line of chemical strippers for the Asian market. Mallinckrodt Baker, parent company of the New Jersey­based supplier, signed an agreement with Dong Woo Fine Chemicals, a subsidiary of Sumitomo Chemical. The parent firm has been making the J.T. Baker products in the United States and exporting them to South Korea for nearly 20 years. The product line includes photoresist strippers, ash residue removers, critical FEOL cleaners, and post-CMP cleaning chemicals.

Europe

AMD unveils Dresden 'jewel'

Praised as a "jewel in the development policy of this state," AMD's new fab opened last October 20 in Dresden. Kurt Biedenkopf, Christian Democrat premier of the German state of Saxony, made the comment during the opening ceremony at the plant's site in the regional capital. The Silicon Valley­based chipmaker has hired 950 workers so far for the plant, which will manufacture AMD's Athlon microprocessors.

Called Fab 30, the plant will have a full production capacity of 5000 8-in. wafers per week, processing chips with 0.18-µm linewidths and clock speeds of 700 MHz. The number of workers will reach approximately 1800 with 75% of them hired locally. AMD says the fab will reach full capacity in late 2001 or early 2002. The fab licenses copper interconnect technology from Motorola. Part of East Germany until reunification, Saxony has been attracting high-tech business.

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